As good as EV motorcycles have gotten the past few years the next breakthrough should make them more appealing to traditional gas motorcyclists that enjoy long distance touring.
If you’re a regular EV Rider viewer chances are good you know some fellow motorcyclists who say they’d never consider an EV due to relatively short range and charging limitations. While that’s been a fair criticism from motorcyclists that do long distance riding, it appears we’re about to see some technical breakthroughs leave the labs and head to the assembly lines that will likely finally put that argument to rest.
The most exciting developments come courtesy of Ducati and Volkswagen along with Farasis, which supplies batteries for Zero as well as Samsung, which supplied LiveWire One batteries.
Let’s start with Volkswagen and Ducati. They unveiled a solid-state battery at the IAA Mobility trade show in Munich that will debut in Ducati’s V2IL’s electric racing bike.
Ducati’s EV, which isn’t publicly available for sale, has been used in MotoE’s World Cup since 2023. The current bike has an 18 kWh battery with 20-kW DC charging.
While Ducati didn’t announce specs, you can expect much better power density from solid state and then there’s this nugget that Ducati did announce: the new pack will charge from 10-80% in under 13 minutes.
Solid state batteries have higher energy densities and ditch some components like liquid electrolytes, which means you can also expect significant weight savings.
Then there’s Farasis Energy, which supplies the battery pouches for many of Zero’s motorcycles.
At this year’s China International Battery Fair, Farasis announced it has a semi-solid state battery solution for motorcycles that promises to balance cost and performance.
That likely means we’ll see a significant battery range and charging speed jump when the next-gen Zeros are introduced, perhaps as soon as 2028. This is my own speculation and has not been confirmed by Zero.
It also would make sense to roll out a new higher voltage architecture at the same time, finally giving Zero’s flagship bikes DC fast charging. Zero’s last battery jump was in 2022 when its largest battery pack went from 14.4 to 17.3 kWh.
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Next up is LiveWire, which is owned by Harley-Davidson.
Currently the largest battery available in a LiveWire is the One’s 15.5 kWh pack, which has cells provided by Samsung. Samsung is also working on solid state batteries, with plans to get them into mass production in 2027.
LiveWire also recently trademarked the name S4 Honcho.
In its original product roadmap, LiveWire indicated its upcoming S4 motorcycle would be a heavyweight, implying it would have the biggest battery in the lineup.
However, before getting too excited, it’s important to note that LiveWire moved away from Samsung cells for its trio of S2 models, and neither LiveWire or Samsung has confirmed any plan for another joint battery project.
Then there’s tiny, boutique California motorcycle maker Lightning, which has been working with the Enevate battery company. They claim to now have a lithium-ion 24-kWh battery pack that can add 135 miles of range in less than 10 minutes when DC charging.
Lightning says the new battery is good for 160 miles at 70 miles per hour. The solid state battery that Ducati is showing off would likely do even better, perhaps surpassing 200 interstate miles.
To put all of it into perspective, the current record holder in terms of a battery that is actually on roads: the Energica Experia’s 22.5-kWh pack is good for roughly 120 or so miles of interstate travel and Verge isn’t far behind with a 21.8 kWh battery option.
EV motorcycle fans have seen overly optimistic promises before but what makes this time different is established players are making the claims.
Plus, major automakers like Mercedes, Stellantis and Toyota have also announced solid state batteries are much closer to being production ready.
Put it all together and it likely means the dream of a true, fast-charging 200-mile EV touring bike is closer than ever.
Editorial disclosure: The motorcycle pictured in the upper right hand side of the video thumbnail graphic at the top of this post is a rendering generated by AI.